The Book

“Every Canadian should read it.” Phil Fontaine, O.C.

““Vikings is a chronicle of a people, but more than a chronicle. It is a documentary about the interaction between human beings and their environment, but it is more than that. It is a fish story, but it’s more than that! It is a brilliant, expansively written 21st century saga about a small, remote community before the last memory is extinguished. Glenn’s saga preserves the legacy of this community, but it does more than that. It celebrates the immense contribution it has made, from its impact on Glenn and his work, to its surprisingly powerful contribution to our national identity. All told with honesty, humour, and heart.”Paul Sullivan, Journalist and Editor

This remarkable book defies genre. Combining history, autobiography, intruiging anecdotes, and leadership insights, Vikings On A Prairie Ocean shares the story of a people, a community, and a man. In lively and engaging prose, Glenn Sigurdson weaves together a uniquely Canadian tale that breathes life into the generations of people of Lake Winnipeg while providing insight into some of the most significant public issues in late 20th century Canada.

The modern saga explores the rich history of the peoples and communities that Sigurdson grew up with – and whose lives, lifestyles, and identity was connected to fishing. Evocative descriptions of characters within the community interweave with historical context, from the brave immigrants who crossed oceans to Canada to the literary and democratic focus of the Icelanders’ earliest settlements on the lake. Growing up alongside First Nations, the author also explores the relationship between Cree, Ojibway and Icelandic people who worked and lived together in often-remote settlements and humble fish stations at the North End of the lake.

As Vikings on A Prairie Ocean unfolds it reveals the evolution of the author’s path breaking career as one of North America’s top consensus builder and conflict resolution professional. Sigurdson shares unique, personal stories about the modern change-makers of the country of celebrated leaders such as Phil Fontaine and Emmett Hall, alongside the wisdom of leadership of everyday people who strive for their communities – during conversations about complex differences over land, fish and resources.

Powerful and deeply personal, Vikings on a Prairie Ocean arches across the universal themes of identity and independence, probing the paradox embedded in the Canadian soul of becoming one while remaining unique.

“Glenn Sigurdson has written a book straight from his heart: part family chronicle; part personal history of Lake Winnipeg and the fishing culture it nourished; and part homage to Manitoba’s extraordinary Icelandic community and its contributions to Canada. This is a story of how our country was built, and of the iron-willed people who against great odds built it.” Scott McIntyre, Co-Founder and Publisher, Douglas & McIntyre

On Writing The Book:
“This book was born out of nostalgia. I became enamored with capturing the incredible places and characters I knew growing up in a fishing family on Lake Winnipeg. The first Icelanders arrived on Lake Winnipeg in 1875. My ancestors came one year later. Our history on the lake began that year, with a few fish pulled through a hole in the ice, a bounty that pushed back starvation for the family’s first winter, spent in a shack on Hecla Island. By 1882, the fledgling steps of fishing as a business had begun off the island’s shores. What became a family legacy of more than a century began with my great grandfather and his brother who emerged as leaders in the blossoming industry and the development of the Icelandic community in Canada. People build their lives on foundations laid from the beginning. For me, it was more than that, for it was on the lake where I learned the essential “tools of my trade,” a trade still in search of a name.

I work within and among diverse organizations—companies, communities, groups and governments—in the public and private sectors, building partnerships and resolving seemingly intractable disputes, often in the vortex where the economy, the environment, and society meet. My role is to deliver a special kind of leadership as the “man in the middle” between big problems and big groups and organizations.

My work has taken me throughout Canada and to many other parts of the world. Navigating the divide between fighting and talking is a tricky journey. The longer people have been in the fight the more it defines who they are, and the more difficult it is to detach them from it. But I also know that the longer they talk the more likely they will stay talking. And as the investment in talking grows the potential to deal with differences takes root in the form of actions enabling individuals and organizations to better live and work together.

I have put these tools to use among many people and in many places, but Lake Winnipeg and its people have stayed alive in my mind, just around the corner every day. How could it be otherwise, with my mind fertilized so richly by remarkable places and captivating characters? Thank God for those experiences, for these memories provided me with countless movies of the mind that continue to move me in new ways. These memories often elicited spontaneous tears or laughter in me, sure signs that they were coming from a deep emotional place. I have drawn strength from them and have shared the stories with many others. They have become my calling card. I am known by them.”

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by Glenn Sigurdson

From The Book

“The more I wrote, the more I came to realize that this saga was a journey of self-exploration about how the lake, its Icelandic and First Nations fishermen, and the communities and people around it, had shaped and inspired me. It would be the Cree and Ojibways living alongside the multitude of rivers that flow into Lake Winnipeg, and the sole river, the mighty Nelson that takes all this water north to Hudson Bay, that would deeply inform and shape my work and my life in the memoir that follows.”
“I learned from the people of the lake first, and then from many other places and people, that those who make their livelihoods from the water or the land understand the world viscerally. Watching, listening and remembering they see patterns and live with uncertainty. They observe how things and people work and feel when things are changing, while the experts with books and lab coats record, analyze and interpret. They derive their identity from their relationship with the world around them, while the experts build credentials with titles and papers. It is as if one is inside the apple looking out; the other is biting into it. The view from the inside is of the whole; the other sees chunks and slices. Knowledge does not begin or end with a credential, nor with experience and wisdom. We need them both; and they need each other to see how each needs the other. I have come to understand that when the voices that speak truth from the ground sit around the table with those who bring truth from a book they bring together a force of gravity that makes solutions to seemingly impossible challenges possible.”

This site is copyright Glenn Sigurdson 2014.All rights reserved. Photos by Glenn Sigurdson and Robert Taylor. Video by Paul Sigurdson. Music by Sol Sigurdson. Book cover image by Robert Pollock. Website by Chris Tucker.